I'm liking the Renault livery and car more and more with each reveal of their rivals. Really hope they can surprise me during the season and be near the sharp end.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Could someone explain what's new on the engine side from 2017 onwards?I've heard they will be more powerfull but haven't seen the new speccs.

I don't think anything has changed regulation wise (current power units are in place until 2020 I think) but they will be faster due to the natural development over the winter.

Renault claim they have gained 3 tenths in PU performance, Honda say they are on level with where Mercedes were last year and Mercedes haven't given any figures but Force India say they have made a big step in performance.

Also the token system has been scrapped so as far as I'm aware the manufacturers have unlimited development potential on the power unit side, but obviously they are still limited by the number of PUs allowed in a season.

I think at some point there was talk of allowing fuel flow rate to go up but not an increase fuel allowed although I don't think anything ever happened with that.

All of the changes PU-wise are more about getting performance between the manufacturers to converge more quickly by getting rid of the tokens and keeping an eye the gap between the performance but what I read it isn't quite clear how they intend to "fix" that.

There's also getting the PU makers to cut the costs and making sure customer teams get updates in a timely manner.

Could someone explain what's new on the engine side from 2017 onwards?I've heard they will be more powerfull but haven't seen the new speccs.

I don't think anything has changed regulation wise (current power units are in place until 2020 I think) but they will be faster due to the natural development over the winter.

Renault claim they have gained 3 tenths in PU performance, Honda say they are on level with where Mercedes were last year and Mercedes haven't given any figures but Force India say they have made a big step in performance.

Also the token system has been scrapped so as far as I'm aware the manufacturers have unlimited development potential on the power unit side, but obviously they are still limited by the number of PUs allowed in a season.

I think the only changes are around the weights of some parts within the PU and a limit on boost pressure to avoid a cooling development race.

No major changes but they will monitor and measure each PU over the first 3 races to find out exactly what the differences are in performance to see if they're still on target for convergence and what if any new rules should be made for next year if there is too much disparity.

Hopefully we find out too one way or another as it will be interesting to see the results without it being filtered through the teams in vague terms.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Thanks. Curiouser and curiouser, I heard the engines would be ''up to 1000hp'' somewhere. Maybe it was that they could potentionally be if they were allowed to rev them higher.

Weren't Mercedes rumoured to be in that ballpark in qualifying last year anyway?. I think it's just natural development that could see 1000hp rather than any new rule getting us there.

If it's true Mercedes have found 60bhp over the winter then they'll surely be there now for Qualifying at least.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

I'm a newcomer when it comes to following pre-season testing. I've followed F1 for a while now but I usually just watch the qualifying and the races but i'm really looking forward to this season so i'm paying a lot more attention.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

I'm a newcomer when it comes to following pre-season testing. I've followed F1 for a while now but I usually just watch the qualifying and the races but i'm really looking forward to this season so i'm paying a lot more attention.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

Not as per times but surely as per reliability.

First test should be all about testing the aerodynamic parts & tyres. There will be lots of sandbagging.

You could expect Sauber to try run low fuel loads to top the times so as to attract more sponsors.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

Well, look at my previous post... One has to look at which times were set on which tyres, the length of the stint the time was set in and the number of the lap in that stint was the fastest. Only then very general patterns can occur. But it will never be really conclusive, just broad indications of who will be in which part of the pack.

It's very much possible that the fastest lap by a team or driver is not as indicative of real performance as some other lap - e.g. a hidden lap on medium tyres during a 15-lap stint of 1:23.1 as opposed to an ultrasoft-shed lap during a three-lap stint of 1:22.8.

I'm a newcomer when it comes to following pre-season testing. I've followed F1 for a while now but I usually just watch the qualifying and the races but i'm really looking forward to this season so i'm paying a lot more attention.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

Not as per times but surely as per reliability.

First test should be all about testing the aerodynamic parts & tyres. There will be lots of sandbagging.

You could expect Sauber to try run low fuel loads to top the times so as to attract more sponsors.

I don't think we will know anything about reliability either. Mercdes in 2016 probably drove record mileage in winter yet the car wasn't very reliable.

I'm a newcomer when it comes to following pre-season testing. I've followed F1 for a while now but I usually just watch the qualifying and the races but i'm really looking forward to this season so i'm paying a lot more attention.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

Not as per times but surely as per reliability.

First test should be all about testing the aerodynamic parts & tyres. There will be lots of sandbagging.

You could expect Sauber to try run low fuel loads to top the times so as to attract more sponsors.

I don't think we will know anything about reliability either. Mercdes in 2016 probably drove record mileage in winter yet the car wasn't very reliable.

I'm a newcomer when it comes to following pre-season testing. I've followed F1 for a while now but I usually just watch the qualifying and the races but i'm really looking forward to this season so i'm paying a lot more attention.

This may be a silly question, but does the pre season testing give any indication to the overall performance of the car during a race weekend?

Not as per times but surely as per reliability.

First test should be all about testing the aerodynamic parts & tyres. There will be lots of sandbagging.

You could expect Sauber to try run low fuel loads to top the times so as to attract more sponsors.

I don't think we will know anything about reliability either. Mercdes in 2016 probably drove record mileage in winter yet the car wasn't very reliable.